Food initiative could learn a lot from a pioneer

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I was both inspired and bothered by the article “Putting expired foods to healthy use” (Page A1, Feb. 26). I was inspired by the interest that the former Trader Joe’s president, Doug Rauch, has taken in Dorchester’s food and nutritional needs. But I was bothered by the article’s failure to mention Nancy Jamison, the founder of the wonderful Fair Foods program in Dorchester. Rauch can use Fair Foods as a working example of how to reclaim healthy foods and offer them back to the people of Boston.

Having worked with Fair Foods for two years in the mid-1990s, I was given a lifetime’s worth of experience in reclaiming perishable foods and bringing them into the homes of Boston’s inner-city residents. I also saw by example the magnitude of Jamison’s methods of direct service efforts.

Of course, as an intense voice and force for the nutritional needs of Boston’s poor, Jamison constantly ruffled feathers. It was imperative to do so in order to achieve any substantive change.

Seeking out others already working in the community will offer Rauch the most effective way to end nutritional imbalance in our city. I strongly urge him to include Jamison in this effort, and in so doing to follow her lead.